3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
USA
Sara Fonseca spends roughly 23 hours a day confined to a small concrete prison cell. The inmate, who is in her early thirties and goes by the nickname “Mariposa,” has been behind bars for nearly thirteen years, and since 2012 has been locked in a so-called “Security Housing Unit” — a highly restrictive setup commonly described as solitary confinement. That means she has extremely limited communication with anyone inside the prison — the California Institution for Women, located in Corona, forty miles east of Los Angeles — and virtually no contact with the outside world.
But this week, audiences across the Bay Area will get a chance to hear Mariposa’s story — in her own words. Mariposa and the Saint, a play Mariposa co-wrote with longtime friend Julia Steele Allen, gives viewers an intimate look at the impact of incarceration from the direct perspective of an inmate housed in what advocates describe as one of the cruelest features of the prison system. The 45-minute play, which Allen will perform at La Peña Cultural Center (3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley) on May 10, is the culmination of two years of letters between Mariposa and Allen.